Japan Undercover Context travels badly. We pack it properly. YouTube

Japanese receipts / American context

Japan,
without the postcard filter.

Primary Japanese sources, American context, and the detail that disappears somewhere over the Pacific. Follow the stories when they surface.

Watch on YouTube See what surfaced Start with hiragana
JP
primary-source receipts
2+
receipts for consequential claims
0
souvenir-shop filler
Nishimonai Bon Odori visual with archival-photo disclosure
Featured field note The dance behind the veils Read →

Tokyo now

JST

Japan Standard Time

News behind the language barrier Language in the wild History with consequences Maps worth saving News behind the language barrier Language in the wild

From the field desk

No fixed format.
No filler.

Stories from Japan, explained from Japanese sources. Below them, a study path from the first kana to the jōyō kanji.

Culture

Festival / Field note

Nishimonai Bon Odori: the dance behind the veils.

A festival can be beautiful without becoming vague. The history, garments, and August ritual are the point.

Reel / 19 seconds Open the field note →
A Japanese address shown as a five-step zoom sequence Language

Addresses / Everyday Japan

A Japanese address is a zoom lens.

Read the hierarchy, then learn why international mail flips the presentation.

Visual reference guide Open the field note →
Mount Fuji's four official climbing routes compared by color, distance, time, and terrain Travel

Mount Fuji / 2026

Four routes. Four different mountains.

Distance, huts, terrain, entry fees, night controls, and the one route with a daily cap.

Current climbing guide Open the field note →
Japan prefecture code visual guide Geography

Prefectures / Geography

The code hidden in Japan's 47 prefectures.

Regions, administrative logic, and the geography a Tokyo-only map leaves out.

Built for a second look Open the field note →
Visual guide to the three writing systems used in Japanese Language

Writing systems / Language

Japan writes three ways. None is decorative.

A visual entrance into kanji, hiragana, and katakana, including the jobs each system quietly performs.

Save in under 2 minutes Open the field note →
Editorial illustration of Phobos, Mars, and the MMX spacecraft Space

MMX / Current affairs

Why is Japan going to a moon of Mars?

H3 Flight 10 now has a planned launch time. The mission is chasing at least ten grams of Phobos.

JAXA source ledger Open the field note →

Study Japanese

Start at あ.
Keep going.

In learning order: hiragana, katakana, then the jōyō kanji grade by grade. Each step has a full study clip with readings, example words and stroke order.

The hiragana あ, its sound a, the kanji 安 it came from, the word あり and its stroke order Language

Hiragana / Study clip

Every kana began as a kanji.

All 71 hiragana with the kanji each came from, an everyday word and stroke order.

Study clip / 6 minutes Open the field note →
The katakana ア, its sound a, the kanji 阿 with its left side in red, the word アイス and its stroke order Language

Katakana / Study clip

Every katakana is a piece of a kanji.

All 71 katakana with the kanji each came from, the piece it kept, an everyday word and stroke order.

Study clip / 6 minutes Open the field note →
The kanji 学 with its readings, the example word 大学 and its stroke order Language

Kanji / Study clip

2,136 characters. Start with 80.

Start with the 80 kanji taught in first grade, with readings, example words and stroke order.

Study clip / 8 minutes Open the field note →
The kanji 時 with its readings, an example word and its stroke order Language

Kanji / Study clip

Second grade writes its own timetable.

160 more kanji, 240 in all. Readings, example words and stroke order for every one.

Study clip / 15 minutes Open the field note →
The kanji 筆, brush, with its readings, an example word and its stroke order Language

Kanji / Study clip

Third grade picks up the brush.

200 more kanji, 440 in all. Readings, example words and stroke order for every one.

Study clip / 18 minutes Open the field note →
The kanji 鹿 with its readings, the example word 鹿児島 and its stroke order Language

Joyo kanji / Grade 4

Fourth grade can write the whole map.

All 202 grade 4 kanji, ending with the 20 prefecture kanji from 茨城 to 沖縄.

Study clip / 18 minutes Open the field note →
The kanji 幹 with its readings, the example word 新幹線 and its stroke order Language

Joyo kanji / Grade 5

Fifth grade catches what fourth grade dropped.

All 193 grade 5 kanji, including the 21 that moved up from grade 4 when the prefecture kanji came in.

Study clip / 17 minutes Open the field note →
The kanji 済 with its readings, the example word 経済 and its stroke order Language

Joyo kanji / Grade 6

Sixth grade finishes the list.

All 191 grade 6 kanji, completing the elementary school list at 1,026. 経済 finally arrives.

Study clip / 16 minutes Open the field note →

Translation Desk

Not a translation feed.
An explanation desk.

Japanese reporting often reaches American readers late, stripped of the assumptions local readers already know. We recover those assumptions before publishing.

  1. 01
    Find the receipt

    Start with the Japanese ministry, municipality, university, court, company, or organizer.

  2. 02
    Verify the consequence

    Use a second source when the claim could change what someone believes or does.

  3. 03
    Translate the context

    Explain what a Japanese reader is assumed to know and an American reader probably is not.

  4. 04
    Choose the visual

    Map, timeline, comparison, annotated image, or no visual at all if one would merely decorate.

Try it

How well do you
know Japan?

Pick a subject, answer five questions, and keep your best score on this device. Each answer explains itself.

Kana / 46 basic hiragana

1 / 5

Which hiragana represents the sound “a”?

Japan Undercover on YouTube

Every study clip,
in one place.

Hiragana, katakana and the jōyō kanji grade by grade, with stroke order, readings and an example word for each. Plus Shorts on the words in today's Japanese news. Subscribe and the next one finds you.

Watch on YouTube @JapanUndercoverTV

Private dispatch list

Let the useful ones
find you.

A measured email when a story deserves more than a scroll. Only stories worth opening, with the missing context intact.

Field desk

The part that does not translate is usually the point.

News / Language / History / Culture

Follow what the algorithm misses.

Dispatches built from Japanese receipts and selected for usefulness rather than volume. The goal is not more Japan content. It is better context.

Watch every study clip on YouTube ↗
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